Speaker 1: Please stand.
Speaker 2: Roughly a year ago, the Supreme Court of Victoria allowed
Speaker 2: a television camera to broadcast a sentencing for the first time.
Speaker 2: The hearing the convicted triple murderer Aaron Patterson for.
Speaker 1: The attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson. I sentence you to
Speaker 1: twenty five years imprisonment for the murder of Heather Wilkinson.
Speaker 1: I sentenced you to life imprisonment for the murder of
Speaker 1: Gail Patterson. I sentenced you to life imprisonment for the
Speaker 1: murder of Don Patterson. I sentenced you to life imprisonment.
Speaker 2: When Justice Christopher Beale sentence her to life in prison,
Speaker 2: it was the conclusion of a story that had captivated
Speaker 2: Australia for more than two years.
Speaker 3: Oh, it was a big moment. It was a really
Speaker 3: big conclusion to this that's been building up. It's amazing
Speaker 3: to think it's stretched over two years now.
Speaker 2: Investigative journalist Lucy Morris Maher followed the case since the
Speaker 2: fatal mushroom lunch in July twenty twenty three, where Aaron
Speaker 2: Patterson served beef Wellington laced with poisonous deathcat mushrooms to are.
Speaker 3: In laws think the whole of Australia. They are watching
Speaker 3: that live. Of course, it's also a historical moment today
Speaker 3: because the Supreme Court of Victoria has never broadcast a
Speaker 3: sentencing live or anything live like that. But as much
Speaker 3: as the media have gone through this and covered debt,
Speaker 3: it's nothing like the families. You know, the relief they
Speaker 3: must feel today having gone through all that themselves, and
Speaker 3: I know for them this has been absolutely exhausting.
Speaker 2: Now Patterson has been back in court appealing her convictions,
Speaker 2: while prosecutors argue with a sentence which allows her to
Speaker 2: apply for parole after thirty three years, is too lenient
Speaker 2: and that she should never be released from prison. I'm
Speaker 2: Daniel James, and you're listening to seven AM. Today we
Speaker 2: revisit our conversation with investigative journalist and author Lucy Morris
Speaker 2: mart on the sentencing of Aaron Patterson, the suffering her
Speaker 2: crimes caused, and how the judge decided her punishment. It's Sunday,
Speaker 2: August twenty three. This episode was first published in September
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4: Lucy, Aaron Patterson has just been sentenced to life in
Speaker 4: prison with a minimum prison period of thirty three years.
Speaker 4: There were many aggravating factors that the judge spoke about
Speaker 4: when he handed down that decision. One was her lack
Speaker 4: of remorse. He mentioned that several times. So tell me
Speaker 4: what you were thinking as you heard him lay that out.
Speaker 3: Of course, you know, with a judge, you know, naturally
Speaker 3: he doesn't ever say his opinion. Really, he did seem
Speaker 3: very taken by the victim impact statements a couple of
Speaker 3: weeks ago, where seven members of the hugely extended families
Speaker 3: stood up and read their victim impact statement, and he
Speaker 3: did say, you know, this is a tsunami of pain
Speaker 3: and grief, and that got the sense of how he
Speaker 3: was feeling. But of course, then to hear him lay
Speaker 3: out in detail Erin's planning, her lies, and the way
Speaker 3: he did it with such clarity, it just really reiterated
Speaker 3: that the jury made the right decision.
Speaker 1: The prosecution submits, and your council concedes that your offending
Speaker 1: falls into the worst category of offending for these offenses,
Speaker 1: and that you should receive the maximum penalties for your crimes.
Speaker 1: I agree for reasons that I will come to in
Speaker 1: due course.
Speaker 3: And he was very scathing at times.
Speaker 1: Naturally, not only did you cut short three lives, and
Speaker 1: cause lasting damage to Ian Wilkinson's health, thereby devastating the
Speaker 1: extended Patterson and Wilkinson families. You inflicted untold suffering on
Speaker 1: your own children, whom you robbed of their beloved grandparents.
Speaker 3: You know he said this crime was premeditated, unplanned. He
Speaker 3: made the absolutely clear. He clearly outlined each aspect. For example,
Speaker 3: looking at death caps on I Naturalist's website.
Speaker 1: That is a website on which people can post and
Speaker 1: view sightings of death cap mushrooms, amongst other things. On
Speaker 1: the twenty eighth of May twenty two, you access the
Speaker 1: I Naturalist weaks site and navigated to its worldwide map
Speaker 1: in relation to sightings of deathcap mushrooms.
Speaker 3: She bought a dehydrator. She took pictures of what experts
Speaker 3: later said looked like death caps in that dehydrator and
Speaker 3: sent them on her friend group with the True Crime
Speaker 3: friends that she'd made on Facebook.
Speaker 1: You photographed forage mushrooms on the trays of your dehydrator.
Speaker 1: The images were found by investigators on a Samsung tablet
Speaker 1: later seized from your home.
Speaker 3: She invited Simon Patterson to the infamous lunch, saying she
Speaker 3: had an important medical news which of course we now
Speaker 3: know is lies.
Speaker 1: Simon and you exchanged messages. Simon's read quote, sorry, I
Speaker 1: feel too uncomfortable about coming to the lunch with you, Mum, Dad,
Speaker 1: Heather and Ian tomorrow, but I am happy to talk
Speaker 1: about your health and implications of that at another time.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to discuss on the phone, just let
Speaker 1: me know, you replied five minutes later, quote, that's really disappointing.
Speaker 1: I've spent many hours this week preparing lunch for tomorrow.
Speaker 3: And the judge said he accepted Ian Wilkinson's evidence that
Speaker 3: she served guests on gray larger plates and hers was
Speaker 3: on a small plate, which was a huge part of
Speaker 3: the trial. You know, it just went on and on,
Speaker 3: and it really reminded those watching live exactly how elaborate
Speaker 3: this crime was and intentional.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And he also said that it was clear that
Speaker 4: she had wanted her guests to suffer. She would have
Speaker 4: known the effect of poisoning with death cat mushrooms. And
Speaker 4: he described her what she'd done as falling into the
Speaker 4: worst category of murder and attempted murder. So what did
Speaker 4: you make of his characterization of how serious her crimes are?
Speaker 3: Absolutely correct, I mean during the trial. I was very moved.
Speaker 3: It was very difficult to listen to the suffering involved
Speaker 3: in terms of those poor people, the initial gastro symptoms
Speaker 3: which became more and more extreme as the hours went by,
Speaker 3: and then their time in hospitals as medics desperately tried
Speaker 3: to save them. Their organs were basically filling the fluid.
Speaker 3: And it was actually a reminder that violent crimes don't
Speaker 3: always have to evolve a knife or a gun. This
Speaker 3: was a very nasty, violent crime, and as he said,
Speaker 3: she intended to kill them all, and she showed no
Speaker 3: pity for her victims. Another quote he said was you
Speaker 3: followed through on your lethal plan, which was actually a
Speaker 3: quote as he noted from Heather and Ian's daughter Ruth
Speaker 3: de Bois, as.
Speaker 1: The Wilkinson's daughter Ruth Dubois remarking her victim impact statement,
Speaker 1: You quote followed through on your lethal plan your lunch GISs.
Speaker 1: Each suffered severe gestro intestinal illness on the Sunday and
Speaker 1: Monday prior to being sedated and mechanically ventilated. Their suffering
Speaker 1: was protracted.
Speaker 3: Because maybe if she'd said yes, I forage, and they
Speaker 3: would have realized there was a chance they could have
Speaker 3: consumed death caps or another seriously poisonous mushroom. They could
Speaker 3: have had an antidote or the medication that people can
Speaker 3: have to protect from liver damage. So she carried on
Speaker 3: the cry in those following days, and he said their
Speaker 3: suffering was substantial. It was enormous betrayal of the trust
Speaker 3: of your victims. All had been good to you.
Speaker 1: Your victims were all your relatives by marriage. More than that,
Speaker 1: they had all been good to you and your children
Speaker 1: over many years, as you acknowledged in your testimony.
Speaker 3: Very damning, very scathing, and wrote me so.
Speaker 4: And one thing that Justine Spiel pointed out was that
Speaker 4: we still don't know why Aaron Patterson did what she did.
Speaker 4: Motive was never established, he said, and he was talking
Speaker 4: directly to her, only you know why you did this.
Speaker 4: So given that, do you think that we're just going
Speaker 4: to see endless speculation here about what her motive was.
Speaker 3: Yes, unless she ever confesses, which it doesn't look like,
Speaker 3: we will never know. I mean, of course there's speculation.
Speaker 3: There was a fallout. He did mention the family fall
Speaker 3: out briefly when she was seeking support from Don and
Speaker 3: Gel Patterson regarding her a strange husband Simon's lack of
Speaker 3: paying child support for a short time, and there's speculation
Speaker 3: that she held onto that grudge even though it was
Speaker 3: seemed to be resolved, and that she really held that
Speaker 3: in But of course we heard when the pre trial
Speaker 3: suppression order was lifted, we heard that, you know, Simon
Speaker 3: Patterson alleges that she tried to poison him on several
Speaker 3: occasions and made him extremely unwell. But you know, clearly
Speaker 3: she's in the right place. Is a very serious crime.
Speaker 3: This is a serial killing crime and one that we
Speaker 3: thankfully don't see very often in Australia. But she has
Speaker 3: been given these life sentences and yes it's thirty three
Speaker 3: years in prison, non parole period, but actually, if you
Speaker 3: break it down, Ian Wilkinson's attempted murder was twenty five years,
Speaker 3: the killing of Heather Wilkinson life in prison, Gail Patterson
Speaker 3: life in prison, Don Patterson life in prison. I mean,
Speaker 3: if you added all that up, it would come to
Speaker 3: like a hundred years. But she can only do what
Speaker 3: she can do, so it's being done concurrently, and that's
Speaker 3: a life sentence with a non parole period of thirty
Speaker 3: three years. But she'll be eighty three, will she live
Speaker 3: to see that we don't know. It's not exactly conducive
Speaker 3: healthy conditions where she's being held.
Speaker 4: Coming up, why the sole survivor of Erin Patterson's poisoned
Speaker 4: lunch has offered forgiveness Lucy In setting Aaron Patterson's non
Speaker 4: parole period, Justice Bill spoke a lot about this being
Speaker 4: one of the biggest points that he had to make
Speaker 4: a decision on. So tell me about the considerations that
Speaker 4: would have gone into his decision.
Speaker 3: I think with the non parole period when and there
Speaker 3: was the pre sentencing hearing in the last few weeks
Speaker 3: that we've had, there was a lot of argument between
Speaker 3: the Crown and the defense bearer, Sir Colin Man DSc
Speaker 3: in terms of should there be a non parole period.
Speaker 3: The Crown were pushing no, she should die in jail.
Speaker 3: And in the end the judge said, the reason he
Speaker 3: gave her a non parole period, So for example, you
Speaker 3: could call that a shred of light that one day,
Speaker 3: at eighty three years old, she could have some kind
Speaker 3: of freedom if she makes it that long, he said.
Speaker 3: He took into consideration Erin's life in the Gordon Wing
Speaker 3: of Dame Phyllis Frost Center. Now, this wing's quite infamous.
Speaker 3: It is the most serious isolation wing, where generally they're
Speaker 3: in their cells for maybe twenty two hours twenty three
Speaker 3: hours a day and they don't really mix with each other.
Speaker 3: They only mix with staff. So even though she's in
Speaker 3: theory allowed out of herself, sometimes she doesn't get out.
Speaker 3: But they're saying, due to the forthcoming documentaries, books, etc.
Speaker 3: Her notoriety will go on, and they're worried that she
Speaker 3: would be attacked effectively in prison. So he took that
Speaker 3: into consideration in terms of giving her that non parole period,
Speaker 3: because he accepts that that's not really standard to keep
Speaker 3: someone in segregation. In fact, the UN suggests it should
Speaker 3: only be fifteen days at a time, and she's facing
Speaker 3: many years at a time in this situation.
Speaker 4: Yeah, given that, given that it is in breach of
Speaker 4: UN guidelines, how long is a situation like that likely
Speaker 4: to go on for? Like you would hope, well, you
Speaker 4: would think that it might change.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I suppose while we're in this frenzy. We've got
Speaker 3: the Stand documentary coming out, there's books coming out from
Speaker 3: multiple publishers. There's going to be so much attention on this,
Speaker 3: and so I think therefore her own safety. I think
Speaker 3: it will be for the foreseeable future, might be, you know,
Speaker 3: a few years, five years, she might be able to
Speaker 3: go back and be in the more general area and
Speaker 3: have despite what she's done. We're a humane country and
Speaker 3: we treat people appropriately and I think that's important for
Speaker 3: us as a societ and so she will be treated
Speaker 3: as appropriate for her status at that point.
Speaker 5: The murders here today is to give some well earned
Speaker 5: thanks firstly to Victoria Police, in particular the homicide squad
Speaker 5: and the team led by Detective Stephen epping Stall and.
Speaker 4: Ian Wilkinson, who was the only person to survive that lunch.
Speaker 4: He was there today and he spoke briefly outside of court.
Speaker 4: He thanked police, he thanked prosecutors. So tell me a
Speaker 4: bit about the impact of all of this on him,
Speaker 4: as well as the other community members, family members, friends.
Speaker 3: Ian Wilkinson look. I remember seeing him at the pre
Speaker 3: trial hearing for the first time, the first time he
Speaker 3: appeared in court that was last year in the Supreme
Speaker 3: Court in the William Street and Melbourne. I was absolutely
Speaker 3: blown away by his presentation. He was just so poised
Speaker 3: for what had happened, including loss of his wife. He
Speaker 3: appeared at the trial, he was very strong, he got
Speaker 3: the facts out, he didn't waiver, he wasn't overcome by emotion. Again,
Speaker 3: extremely impressive character. It was only when he came to
Speaker 3: do his victim impact statement two weeks ago that he
Speaker 3: did break down as he talked about Heather's character, and
Speaker 3: she sounded such a wonderful person, absolutely lovely mother and
Speaker 3: grandmother who helped her local community, helped family. And he
Speaker 3: talked of the loneliness, the isolation, the despair of being
Speaker 3: a new widower. He called himself suddenly single at that age,
Speaker 3: you know, his early seventies, and he broke down, but
Speaker 3: he still carried on. He got through that statement. He
Speaker 3: had took deep breaths, he paused, and then of course
Speaker 3: his daughter, Ruth Dubois, another incredibly impressive lady, who said
Speaker 3: how much she missed her mother, and poignantly she said
Speaker 3: she was somebody I trusted with both the best parts
Speaker 3: and worst parts of myself, knowing there'd be no judgment.
Speaker 3: I have really connected to what she said, and I
Speaker 3: really realized the loss, and that really was emotional. And
Speaker 3: then of course there was many other statements made in
Speaker 3: fact altogether lodged with the court. There was twenty eight
Speaker 3: victim statements. The judge was clearly very moved by that
Speaker 3: and he said this has affected generations, plus their friends,
Speaker 3: plus the community. He took that into consideration with the sentencing.
Speaker 4: And so Aaron Patterson now has a month to lodge
Speaker 4: an appeal either against her.
Speaker 3: Sentence or her conviction or both. So does that seem
Speaker 3: like a thing to happen, Well, it's up in the
Speaker 3: air at the moment. She now has exactly twenty eight
Speaker 3: days from today, as you mentioned, to appeal either against
Speaker 3: conviction or sentence. So it will be very interesting. Her barrister,
Speaker 3: Colin Mandy, didn't comment. He was surrounded by media as
Speaker 3: he left the court today. It was interesting there was
Speaker 3: one point in the judge's speech where I felt, yeah,
Speaker 3: he may seem to suggest she shridn't appeal. He pointed
Speaker 3: out that Ian Wilkinson had offered her his forgiveness and
Speaker 3: the quote that Ian Wilkinson said it was for all
Speaker 3: those harms done to me, with full confession and forgiveness.
Speaker 3: Then it was interesting. The judge mentioned that it was
Speaker 3: perhaps he was saying, you know, don't appeal, don't put
Speaker 3: these people through that and you make yourself a better person,
Speaker 3: which was what Ian Wilkinson did. But look at this point,
Speaker 3: she's got thirty three years ahead of her before she's out.
Speaker 3: That's if she survives that long in those conditions, and
Speaker 3: so I think she probably will appeal. Like she's never confessed,
Speaker 3: she's put everyone through a lengthy trial. So we'll have
Speaker 3: to just see. But I wouldn't be surprised because she
Speaker 3: literally has nothing to lose.
Speaker 4: Well, Lissie, thank you so much for be at time today,
Speaker 4: Oh my pleasure.
Speaker 3: Seven.
Speaker 2: I am will be back tomorrow with an episode on
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Speaker 2: Circle that'll be in your feet tomorrow. I'm Daniel James.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to seven.
Speaker 5: Are you